Job Discussion Forums

[Okami]

The fellow, who rents motorcycles, is opening his very own motorcycle shop for repairs, rentals and sales. He's an English chap, named Jeremy. He opens next week. I'll post the details and answer any questions.

Repairs- Bring your motorcycle or scooter in anytime between 12pm-10pm. He's quite good and will actually repair your bike right the first time by figuring out what went wrong in the first place.

Rentals- You need to get ahold of him at least 2-3 weeks before you need a bike as he has a high demand for rental motorcycles They require a $7,000NT deposit, $2,600NT/month rent and must be taken in monthly for preventative maintenance. I have use this service and have been quite pleased.

Sales- I know he will have some new Kymcos and maybe some of his older bikes. Not sure on this one.

CYA
Okami

[Okami]

Jeremy's shop info

Bikefarm
Xinhai Rd. Sec. 3, Alley 157, #4
Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
02-8732-1992

Go down Keelung (Jilong) Rd from Roosevelt Rd. towards the WTC. When you get to Xinhai Rd. turn right, then at the next light turn left(there's a water treatment plant there). His shop will be the 2nd one on the right. He will have spares and be a fully functioning shop next week.

Now to answer any possible questions:

He's not certified, but neither are most of the guys working on motorcycles in Taiwan. He's quite good, but Mr. Chen(the only man mentioned for his honesty in the whole lonely planet Taiwan book) can still identify parts better blindfolded(they've actually done that too). He's been doing this for about 7 years now and knows his stuff quite well.

I find renting more advantageous because I don't have an ARC and I don't have to worry about maintenance. If the bike breaks down in Taipei city or close to it in Taipei county, Jeremy will come out an fix it. The problem with used scooters is you don't know how well the last owner took care of it. So you could possible get lucky and have no problems or be really unlucky and have a nearly infinite stream of them. I basically see it as a service and one less headache. I had cars, trucks, and a motorcycle in the US. Repairs are what usually nailed me the hardest. You also will not have to worry about insurance, emissions, and tickets(though you still have to pay for them) because Jeremy takes care of all of that. When you get a ticket, Jeremy will show you the picture and pay the fine +$100NT for the trouble. You pay for fines. In 3 years, I have had only one fine, but my motorcycle towed twice(much worse experience.)

Jeremy is an excellent source of information. he may not know how to do something, but someone who rents or has rented from him will. It seems he'll also have a board for people to post jobs, items for sale, and roommates wanted. I find having an experienced Fluent English speaking mechanic quite handy in the Taipei area. Having had to use a shop once and then having them have to fix the bike twice in 5 minutes because they didn't do it right the first time.

CYA
Okami